Remove New Products For Month & Where to Put Javascript

[Twister]

Snap1.jpg

Snap2.jpg

I've attached 2 screenshots - showing the 3 "New products for (monthname)" vs. "New Products" display. This should illustrate my problem!
Thanks...

[jpf]

limit it to 2 columns. Or limit the max pic width to fit. Or Expand the center width.

[Twister]

I do have it limited to 2 columns (even tried 1 or zero columns without success) and have limited the image size as much as I can. Expanding the center width would mess everything else up.

All I wanted to do was replace the 3 across display within "New Products for (month)" with a 1 across display or eliminate New Products for (month) feature altogether.

You have the foundation for a good product and I appreciate your suggestions but I can't waste anymore time on this.

[michael_s]

To remove the box is simple, just edit /templates/fallback/index.default.tpl.php and remove the code for the box. Takes about two minutes. Here is the exact code to remove:

          <tr>
            <td><br><?php include(DIR_WS_MODULES . FILENAME_NEW_PRODUCTS); ?></td>
          </tr>

To change the new products for this month to just display one or two per row, it is really easy too. Just find the following code in /catalog/includes/modules/new_products.php

     $col ++;
    if ($col > 2) {
      $col = 0;
      $row ++; 
  

And change the 2 to a 1 for two columns and the 1 to a zero for 1 column.

Finally, it is not really wasting time learning how to use the software that you are running for your business. The price of free software is time. You have to either spend your money on something or spend your time to learn. In most cases, even the commercial packages have complexity issues like this one. Considering osCMax has more features than many of the commercial carts that cost over $500 (some in the thousands) or a yearly license fee, spending a couple of days should not be a big deal. If it is, you may want to consider purchasing a commercial package that you can get direct support for, or at least be able to yell at someone who has a financial stake in keeping you happy

All of these free osC packages assume that the users will take some of the initiative and search through the code, forums, etc... for answers, and will be more patient since everything is provided free of charge. Consider it self serve software. Cheaper price (in this case 100% free), but less service (in this case 100% self-serve )

One question, when you hit this problem did you just stop everything and wait to figure it out? If so, yes that is a waste of time. Why not just move on to other things that you need to set up while this problem gets figured out? I mean, it is so minor of an issue, why get bogged down when there is so much more for you to be getting done with setup of the shop.

By the way, most all the other osC flavors out there have the same new_products module, so you will have the same issue with them (I could be wrong - I often am )

[Twister]

Michael,
Thanks for the reply. I'm a well seasoned developer in many other languages (25+ years) but my life has been spent in massive corporate and DOD contract database work and imbedded systems programming. I know a little HTML, javascript and some ASP and VB but web programming is very new to me. I find HTML and javascript basically quite simple and intuitative - ASP/VB are about the same but for some reason I'm really having a hard time with PHP. I went through a couple of online PHP tutorials but you know how that goes - nothing in the real world is ever as straight forward as a tutorial. I really don't understand PHP and because development in it is so modular and unstructured its difficult for me to find my way around - when I think I know where to look for something I don't see what I expected and find that that code was included or referenced from somewhere else which inturn itself had its code referenced or borrowed from somewhere else. I feel like I'm going in circles!

Because I've been in I.T. all my life, I'm not comfortable moving something into production that I don't understand so I'm trying to learn all I can in the limited time I have to get a site up and running. When someone posts something and says "do this and it will work" I need to understand WHY it works. I was able to build a simple but functional ASP/SQL Server front end and backshop in about a week mostly from scratch but I'd like to avoid IIS if possible which rules out ASP - hosting is also a bit more expensive in the Microsoft universe. I expected to do the same in PHP - boy, was I wrong!

You're right about the open source world and it's a definite transition for someone whose been collecting MSCE's all his life. Things are not documented the way they are in a commercial environment - a bit more academic and esoteric... I'll get there but so far I haven't reached the point of an epiphany - I'm still working at it and will happen but I also can't slip my schedule indefinitely. Anyway, thank you for your help and guidance - you're a good "teacher"! Thanks again...

[jpf]

To remove the box is simple, just edit /templates/fallback/index.default.tpl.php and remove the code for the box. Takes about two minutes. Here is the exact code to remove:

          <tr>
            <td><br><?php include(DIR_WS_MODULES . FILENAME_NEW_PRODUCTS); ?></td>
          </tr>

To change the new products for this month to just display one or two per row, it is really easy too. Just find the following code in /catalog/includes/modules/new_products.php

     $col ++;
    if ($col > 2) {
      $col = 0;
      $row ++; 
  

And change the 2 to a 1 for two columns and the 1 to a zero for 1 column.

Finally, it is not really wasting time learning how to use the software that you are running for your business. The price of free software is time. You have to either spend your money on something or spend your time to learn. In most cases, even the commercial packages have complexity issues like this one. Considering osCMax has more features than many of the commercial carts that cost over $500 (some in the thousands) or a yearly license fee, spending a couple of days should not be a big deal. If it is, you may want to consider purchasing a commercial package that you can get direct support for, or at least be able to yell at someone who has a financial stake in keeping you happy

All of these free osC packages assume that the users will take some of the initiative and search through the code, forums, etc... for answers, and will be more patient since everything is provided free of charge. Consider it self serve software. Cheaper price (in this case 100% free), but less service (in this case 100% self-serve )

One question, when you hit this problem did you just stop everything and wait to figure it out? If so, yes that is a waste of time. Why not just move on to other things that you need to set up while this problem gets figured out? I mean, it is so minor of an issue, why get bogged down when there is so much more for you to be getting done with setup of the shop.

By the way, most all the other osC flavors out there have the same new_products module, so you will have the same issue with them (I could be wrong - I often am )

Actually changing in the Admin - MAX values - "New Products Module" to 2 will limit it to 2 etc...

Maybe he want to display in rows and not columns?